Felt cute, might make you suffer later

Insertions in the national budget have gotten out of hand

Jun 11, 2025

Good morning, Big Brains. I highkey love June’s energy. The weather is right, there are public holidays, and binge-worthy Netflix releases. There is also an unhealthy amount of controversial news to delve into (pardon my AI). Speaking of controversies, you might need to pick your jaw from the floor after reading this.

- Margaret

Word count: ~ 1, 400
Reading time ~ 8 mins

Let’s get into today’s edition:

Insertions in the national budget have gotten out of hand
Remi Tinubu is giving out scrubs and Crocs to midwives to improve healthcare delivery

The Big Deal

Insertions in the national budget have gotten out of hand

Normal has always been relative, but we’re no longer sure that word should feature in any Nigerian’s vocabulary. It’s funny how our first sentence could apply to anything in the country, but we’re referring to the alleged budget padding by the National Assembly.

The value of budget insertions by lawmakers has increased by 656% in just four years, jumping from ₦913.15 billion in 2021 to ₦6.9 trillion in 2025. According to new data from BudgIT, inflation isn’t the only thing contributing to the yearly hike of Nigeria’s national budget; suspicious activities in the budgeting process are also contributing factors.

In 2021, the National Assembly added 5,601 projects worth ₦913 billion after the president had submitted the federal budget. The following year, lawmakers added 6,462 projects worth ₦910 billion to the budget.

By 2024, they felt even cuter and reportedly decided to make poor Nigerians endure more suffering by inserting 7,447 projects worth ₦2.24 trillion. And now, in 2025? They’ve gone full Shina Rambo on us with 11,122 inserted projects valued at ₦6.9 trillion in the budget.

BudgIT has clarified that it’s not okay with lawmakers twisting the budget to fit their priorities. The inserted projects, usually labelled constituency or zonal intervention projects, rarely come with transparent cost breakdowns or any real link to the country’s development goals. Instead, they’re linked to random, hard-to-trace government agencies, which BudgIT now describes as “project warehouses.”

Why is this a big deal?

One of the world’s smartest guys defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If we’re working with that definition, it feels safe to say that Nigeria is nearing the edge of insanity with these budget padding allegations.

The unbelievable thing about the allegations against the national assembly is that they go as far back as 2016. After former president Muhammadu Buhari presented a national budget of ₦6.08 trillion, it was discovered that lawmakers reportedly snuck questionable projects worth ₦481 billion into the budget.

The worst part about the 2016 budget padding scandal was that lawmakers didn’t just sneak in extra projects; they also reduced the money allocated to life-saving projects. For example, Buhari had proposed ₦4.06 billion for test kits, vaccines, and anti-retroviral drugs under the Federal Ministry of Health, but lawmakers cut that down to just ₦1.01 billion.

If that reduction had not been discovered, the vaccine supply for the entire year would have run out by October 2016, making it harder to record progress in eradicating polio and fighting HIV.

It’s been almost ten years, and it looks like we still have the same problem on our hands. The only difference is that the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) managed to get a sprinkle of accountability from Buhari after the Federal High Court in Lagos ordered him to make sure that all lawmakers involved face prosecution.

So far, we haven’t even heard the T in transparency from the Tinubu-led administration regarding these allegations, which makes them look more suspicious than they already are. If these insertions cannot be justified, they are a waste of Nigeria’s limited resources.

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Remi Tinubu is giving out scrubs and Crocs to midwives to improve healthcare delivery

To the fashion icons of the world, Crocs are ugly inventions that should never have been created. To Nigeria’s First Lady, Remi Tinubu, they are the solution to the country’s healthcare delivery crisis.

On Monday, June 9, the First Lady took her angelic mission to Enugu, where she gave out 10,000 branded scrubs and 10,000 pairs of Crocs as part of the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI). According to her, the goal is to better equip midwives and nurses in the South-East for their frontline roles, one rubber shoe at a time.

But it’s not just a random act of generosity. It’s her way of supporting the federal government's effort in training 120,000 frontline health workers nationwide.

The First Lady also announced a ₦50 million grant for 1,000 women petty traders in Enugu, ₦50,000 each to “recapitalise” their businesses.

The Crocs tour might be ending soon, but she has launched a new campaign to tackle HIV/AIDS, syphilis, and hepatitis called Free-to-Shine. The idea is to reduce infections, eliminate mother-to-child transmission, and ensure Nigerian mothers are healthier.

We rate the healthcare workers' training and Free-to-Shine campaign, but the Crocs and scrub tour? Not so much. We’re not trying to hate, but data shows that Nigeria currently has less than 50% of the midwives the country needs to attend to the 6 million deliveries it records yearly. Also, 80% of the midwives who are still here say they are open to the idea of permanently relocating from the country.

Nigeria is currently one of the most dangerous places in the world to give birth. As of March 2023, for every 100,000 babies born, 1,047 mothers don’t make it. That’s the third-highest maternal mortality rate in Africa.

According to the World Health Organisation, we’re supposed to have 44.5 midwives per 10,000 people. To do that, the government would need to train and deploy nearly 700,000 more nurses and midwives to meet that bare minimum. Right now, we have fewer than 200,000 midwives serving a population of 217 million.

So, while branded scrubs and Crocs are cute, the real issues are still there. If midwives are paid well, we may have more midwives who are willing to stay in the country and can afford to buy themselves Crocs.

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This Week’s Big Question

“What’s your hottest Nigerian take?”

Eden’s response - “Ah Temilorun, please stop generalizing things o. I get that some Nigerians are as terrible as the leaders. But me I don't deserve these terrible leaders.”

You can also share your response here, and if it’s as interesting as Eden’s, we’ll feature it in the next edition.